| 释义 |
▪ I. mute, a. and n.1|mjuːt|
Forms: α. 4–5 muwet, 4–6 mewet, muet, 5 mwet, muyt, 6 muete; β. 5 mut, 6– mute.
[ME. muet (mewet, muwet), a. F. muet:—popular L. *mūtettus dim. of L. mūtus. In the 16th c. the word was assimilated in spelling and pronunciation to L. mūtus (whence OF. mu, Pr. mut, Sp. mudo, It. muto).]
A. adj.
1. a. Not emitting articulate sound; silent.
to stand mute (of malice): in Law, to refuse deliberately to plead.
c1374Chaucer Troylus v. 194 She..stod forth mewet [v.r. muwet] mylde and mansuete. c1450Merlin 172 Thei were alle stille and mewet as though thei hadde be dombe. 1513More Rich. III in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 784 She [was]..neither mute, nor full of bable. 1543–4Act 35 Hen. VIII, c. 5 If any person..stand muet or wilnot directly answere to the same offences. 1547[see malice n. 6]. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. vii. §3 When Counsellors and seruants stand mute and silent. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xi. §234 He could not be so ignorant as not to know what judgment the law pronounced against those who stood mute, and obstinately refused to plead. 1750Gray Elegy xv, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest. 1772Act 12 Geo. III, c. 20 Such Person so standing Mute..shall be convicted of the Felony or Piracy charged in such Indictment or Appeal. 1866M. Arnold Thyrsis xxii, Which task'd thy pipe too sore, and tired thy throat—It fail'd, and thou wast mute! 1906Westm. Gaz. 26 May 12/1 At the Middlesex Sessions on Saturday..a young woman..was found by the jury to be standing mute of malice. Ibid., It was not till 1827 that it was enacted that a plea of not guilty should be entered for a prisoner who stood mute of malice.
b. transf. in the sense: Not emitting sound; not manifesting sound. mute swan: the common swan, Cygnus olor.
1513More Rich. III in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 794 All was still and muete, and not one worde aunswered to. c1600Shakes. Sonn. xcvii, For sommer and his pleasures waite on thee, And thou away, the very birds are mute. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 117 The water..passing along with a mute and vnspeedy current. 1653Walton Angler i. 17 The children of Israel..having hung up their then mute Instruments..sate down. 1774G. White Selborne 14 Feb., The martin..is rather a mute bird. 1785Pennant Arct. Zool. II. 543 Mute Swan. Ibid. 542 note, We change the name of the Tame Swan into Mute, as..this species emits no sound. 1790Bruce Trav. Source Nile III. 55 The sky-lark is here, but is mute the whole year, till the first rains fall in November. 1810Scott Lady of L. i. xv, The groves are still and mute! 1849C. Brontë Shirley x, Mute was the room,—mute the house. 1849M. Arnold Obermann ii, Behind are the abandoned baths Mute in their meadows lone. 1884Wood in Sunday Mag. May 306/1 The descendants of Mute Swans, Greylag Geese and Wild Ducks.
c. Proverbial phrases. as mute as a fish or fishes (and dialectically, as mute as a mackerel, maid, mouse, poker, statue, stone).
c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 6267 They be as Muet as a stone. c1440Compleynt 50 in Temple of Glas 59 A tunge I haue, but wordys none, But stonde mut as any stone. 1576Gascoigne Steele Gl. (Arb.) 67 Be thou eke as mewet as a mayde. 1620Melton Astrolog. 38 What wife he shall haue..whether she shall be as mute as a Fish, or haue a tongue as loude as a Fish-Wife. 1621–3Middleton & Rowley Changeling iii. iii, Be silent, mute, Mute as a statue. 1760Foote Minor i. (1767) 20 Sir Will. You can be secret as well as serviceable? Shift. Mute as a mackerel. 1781C. Johnston Hist. J. Juniper II. 141 The Nabob's friends..had stood all this while as mute as fishes. 1807in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. XI. 3 The members as mute as fishes gaping for loaves. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxviii, Damme, sir, if he wasn't as mute as a poker. 1881Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. v, They one and all..became suddenly as mute as mice.
2. a. Destitute of the faculty of speech; dumb. Also absol.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 111 Bothe meseles & mute and in the menysoun blody, Ofte he heled suche he ne helde it for no maistrye. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 117 b/1 Zoe..whyche had ben muet & dombe vii yere by a sekenes that she had. 1649Alcoran 176 They shall be infamous, deaf, mute, and blinde, and condemned to the flames of hell, because they are wicked. 1651G. W. tr. Cowel's Inst. 173 He that is mute can neither Covenant nor promise, since he cannot speak nor utter words congruous to a Covenant. 1815Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xxiii, For though from earliest childhood mute, The lad can deftly touch the lute. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 418 The leading peculiarities of hysterical mutism are these... The subjects of this disability are completely mute.
b. Applied to the lower animals as lacking the power of articulate speech. Cf. dumb a. 1 b.
1667Milton P.L. ix. 557 Beasts, whom God on thir Creation-Day Created mute to all articulat sound. 1678R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor., Anger vii. (1692) 392 A Brutal Folly, to be Offended at a Mute Animal. 1845Ford Handbk. Spain i. 35 Oaths..seem to be considered as the only language the mute creation can comprehend.
3. Temporarily bereft of the power of speech.
1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 271/2 The blessyd Berthylmewe..entryd in to the temple..and made the deuylle soo muet that he gat noo remembraunce to them that adoured hym. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 418 Noble men at their meetinges should not be mute and tong-tyed. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. xvi. 83 This number is no Representative; because..it becomes oftentimes..a mute Person, and unapt.. for the government of a Multitude. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 28 Then he's struck mute. 1781Cowper Conversat. 352 The fear of being silent makes us mute. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid iii. 298 Mute with wonder I stood.
4. a. Of things or action: Not characterized by or attended with speech or vocal utterance.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, i. i. 49 When he speakes,..the mute Wonder lurketh in mens eares. 1700Dryden Sigism. & Guisc. 684 Mute solemn Sorrow, free from Female Noise. 1802Coleridge Hymn bef. Sunrise 26 Mute thanks and secret ecstasy. 1871Macduff Mem. Patmos ix. 121 The four and twenty Elders prostrate themselves in mute adoration. 1898F. Montgomery Tony 15 Their mute appealing expression.
b. transf.
1627Sir R. Cotton View Reign Hen. III 45 In himselfe hee reformed his naturall Errors, Princes Manners though a mute law haue more of life and vigour then those of letters. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. l. V. 185 The jurisdiction of the magistrate was mute and impotent. 1782W. Gilpin River Wye 91 He will work them up with such colours, mute, or vivid, as best accord with the general tone of his landscape.
5. Gram. and Phonetics.
a. Of a consonant: Produced by an entire interruption of the passage of breath, or by the complete closure of the organs of the mouth; ‘stopped’.
After late L. mūtus, Gr. ἄϕωνος.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xiii. (Arb.) 135 The vowell is alwayes more easily deliuered then the consonant: and of consonants, the liquide more then the mute. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 408/1, T..is a mute Letter, and sounded through the Teeth.
†b. Of a consonant: Voiceless. Obs.
1668Wilkins Real Char. 369 (Zh) the sonorous Consonant, and (Sh) its correspondent mute... The first being vocal, the other mute.
c. Of a letter: Not pronounced, silent.
1638R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. (1818) 181 What tho' graves become acute too? What tho' accents become mute too? 1840Proc. Philol. Soc. III. 6 It gradually was established..that when a mute e followed a single consonant the preceding vowel was a long one.
6. Astrol. (see quot. 1696).
1658J. Gadbury Doctr. Nativities 39 Some Signs there are which be termed mute... If any of the mute Signs ascend in a Nativity [etc.]. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Mute Signs, are those which are denominated from Creatures that have no Voice, as Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces; and in Nativities, when the Significators therein do spoil or cause some Impediment in the Speech of him that is born. 1819J. Wilson Dict. Astrol. 296 Mute Signs, they are called dumb signs by the Arabians, and are said to have an effect on the native's speech, and cause dumbness.
7. Sporting. Not giving tongue (said of hounds while hunting). to run mute, to follow the chase without giving tongue.
1677Cox Gentl. Recr. (ed. 2) 17 When Hounds or Beagles run long without opening or making any cry, we say, they run Mute. 1843Surtees Handley Cross v. 101 A short sharp chirp is borne on the breeze; it is Heroine all but running mute. 1855‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports iv. 119 The defects which should especially be avoided are—first,..‘babbling’; secondly, mute running. Ibid., ‘Babbling’, ‘mute running’, and ‘skirting’, are dependent upon a defect in breeding. 1897Encycl. Sport I. 582 Mute, silent, the hounds going too fast to speak. Some hounds are naturally mute.
8. Of wine: (See quot.) Cf. mute v.4
1801Tilloch's Philos. Mag. X. 151 In Languedoc, a kind of wine is made of white grapes called mute wine, which is employed to sulphur others... This wine never ferments, and for that reason is called mute wine.
9. Said of metals that do not ring when struck.
1806W. Turton tr. Linn. Syst. Nat. VII. Expl. Terms. 1841Maunder Sci. & Lit. Treas. (1848) 487/2.
10. Comb.
1639S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 311 Mute-strucken with this lustre..he remained quite astonished. 1660Trial Regic. 53 This Mute-man fortuned to see the Murtherer of his Father. 1728–46Thomson Spring 162 Herds and flocks Drop the dry sprig, and, mute-imploring, eye The falling verdure. 1746Smollett Advice 41 Bribe him, to feast my mute-imploring eye, With some proud lord, who smiles a gracious lie! 1850Browning Christmas Eve xx. 62 Stumbling, mute-mazed, at nature's chance.
B. n.
1. Phonetics. [See A. 5.] An element of speech formed by a position of the vocal organs such as stops the passage of the breath, or entirely interrupts the sound; a stopped consonant, a ‘stop’.
1530Palsgr. Introd. 20 Theyr consonantes be devyded in to mutes & liquides or semivocalles. 1656Blount Glossogr., Mutes (mutæ), these letters b, c, d, g, h, k, p, q, t, are so called, because they have no sound, without the assistance of a vowel. 1887Encycl. Brit. XXII. 383/1 In Indian languages (p‘) would be felt as a final post-aspirated mute.
allusively.1654Trapp Comm. Job xxxii. (1657) 280 We use to say, That at meetings young men should be Mutes, and old men Vowels.
†2. in mute, in an undertone. Obs.
c1530Crt. of Love 148 In mewet spak I, so that noght astert, By no condicion, word that might be herd.
3. A person precluded by nature, mutilation, or employment from the exercise of speech.
a. A dumb person; one deprived of the power of articulate speech owing to some congenital or pathological infirmity.
1615G. Sandys Trav. 74 Fifty Mutes he hath borne deafe and dumbe. 1660Trial Regic. 53, I have heard a story of a Mute, that was born Mute. 1713Swift Cadenus & Vanessa Wks. 1755 III. ii. 25 Love can with speech inspire a mute. 1823Scott Peveril xvi, The pretty mute was mistress of several little accomplishments. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 335 In..Hancock..there are only 3 persons between 14 and 21 who cannot read and write; and they are mutes. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 109 The hysterical mute expresses himself in writing easily and correctly.
transf.1775Gibbon Priv. Lett. 25 Feb. (1896) I. 251, I am still a Mute; it is more tremendous than I imagined; the great speakers fill me with despair, the bad ones with terror. 1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 687 The mute who cannot speak at a dinner or on the hustings, is eloquent in a pamphlet.
b. An actor on the stage whose part is performed only in dumb-show.
1579W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Loue 32 Mutes vpon a stage called forth to fill vp a roome and make a shew. 1604Dekker Kings' Entertainm. C j, The Personages (as well Mutes as Speakers) in this Pageant were these. 1765E. Thompson Meretriciad (ed. 6) 48 Behind him waddles a theatric Mute. 1787F. Burney Diary 18 Jan., It made me feel, once more..like a mute upon the stage. 1884Truth 13 Mar. 376/2 The sea-green robes of a beautiful mute in Mr. Gilbert's topsy-turvy plays.
c. In oriental countries: A dumb house-servant or janitor; usually one who has been deliberately deprived of the power of speech.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 232 Our graue Like Turkish mute, shall haue a tonguelesse mouth. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 763 Hee saw seauen Muts (these are strong men, bereft of their speech, whom the Turkish tyrants haue always in readinesse, the more secretly to execute their bloody butcherie). 1735Somerville Chase iii. 393 As his Guard of Mutes On the great Sultan wait. 1825Macaulay Ess., Milton (1897) 25 The mutes who throng their antechambers.
†d. Law. One who refuses to plead to an indictment. Obs. (Cf. mute a. 1 note.)
1659Fuller App. Inj. Innoc. i. iii. 3 In our Common Law, Mutes at the Bar, who would not plead to the Indictment, are Adjudged guilty. 1660Trial Regic. 31 He, that doth refuse to put himself upon his Legal Trial of God, and the Countrey, is a Mute in Law. 1738Neal Hist. Purit. IV. 187 Judgment was given against him as a Mute.
e. A professional attendant at a funeral; a hired ‘mourner’.
1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 219 Forty gentlemen..submitted to wait as mutes with their backs against the wall of the chamber where the body laid in state. 1842Literary Gaz. 31 Dec. 897/2 There he saw the two mutes and the hearse at the door. 1892Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker i. 23 Those who had met at the depôt like a pair of mutes, sat down to table with holiday faces. 1962Wodehouse Service with Smile i. 16 That's why she slinks about the place like a funeral mute, is it?
4. Mus.
a. A clip of metal, wood or ivory that can be placed over the bridge of a violin or similar stringed instrument to deaden the resonance without affecting the vibration of the strings.
1811Busby Dict. Music (ed. 3). 1894Pall Mall Mag. Feb. 590 He played it over a dozen times with the mute on his violin after she had gone to rest.
b. A pear-shaped leather pad or piece of metal which can be inserted into the bell of a metal wind-instrument to check the emission of sound.
1841Musical World Apr. 247 A mute is a piece of brass formed to fit the inside of the bell of a trumpet. 1845E. Holmes Mozart 176 The mutes which soften the tone of brass instruments.
5. Cinemat. A positive or negative film print which has no synchronous sound-track. Also attrib. or as adj.
1933A. Brunel Filmcraft 161 Mute, the negative or positive of the pictorial image. 1953K. Reisz Technique Film Editing 281 Mute negative, picture negative of a sound film, without the sound-track. Mute print, positive print of the picture part of a sound film without the sound track. 1963E. Lindgren Art of Film (ed. 2) ii. 37 We now have two lengths of negative film, one known as the mute negative (or picture negative or action negative) and the other known as the sound negative. The projection print is made by printing these two negatives on to a single positive film. 1969W. Rutherford Gallows Set ii. 27 We're filming him tomorrow morning... And we're doing a bit of mute, showing him going up to the gate. Ibid. iv. 53 There's..a couple of cans on shipbuilding, mostly mute but with a bit of sound.
6. Comb., as mute-like adj.; mute-closure (Phonetics), closure of the oral passage so as to form a mute.
1875Whitney Life Lang. iv. 62 These are the only mute-closures found in English, or French, or German. 1889Clark Russell Marooned xvii, There is really no need for such a mute-like face as yours.
▪ II. † mute, n.2 Obs.
Also 6 meute, 6–7 mewte, 7 mut, muite, 8 mewt.
[f. mute v.1 Cf. F. émeut of the same meaning.]
1. The action of ‘muting’; concr. (sing. and pl.) dung (of birds).
1575Turberv. Falconrie 116 If hir mewtes bee cleane and white. 1596Harington Metam. Ajax 31 You have a speciall regard to obserue, if she [sc. the hawk] make a cleane mute. 1614Markham Cheap Husb. 140 If your Hawke.. get any inward bruise, which you shall know by the blacknesse or bloodinesse of their muts, you shall then annoynt her meat..with Sperma-Cœtæ till her mutes be cleare againe. 1645G. Daniel Poems Wks. (Grosart) II. 45 Like a Falcon..Check'd by my bonds, I fall, And lime my Selfe, in all The muite and Slime. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Mute, dung, especially of Birds. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Apostume, They must be held on the Fist until they have made one or two Mewts. 1820Scoresby Acc. Arctic Reg. I. 426 The reddish colour..is given by the mute of birds.
2. A kind of slimy discharge, as mucus.
1578Lyte Dodoens iii. cxiii. 306 It doth mundifie and clense the breast of all cold meutes or flegme.
▪ III. † mute, n.3 Obs.
Also 4 mut, 9 meute.
[a. OF. muete, meute (mod.F. meute):—popular L. *movita, verbal noun f. L. movēre to move. Cf. med.L. mota (from OFr.).]
1. A pack of hounds.
13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1720 Thenne was hit lif vpon list to lyþen þe houndez, When alle þe mute hade hym met, menged to-geder. c1410Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xxxv, Þanne shulde þe sergeant of þe mute of þe herte houndes..make alle hem of þe office..hardell þeire houndes. 1486Bk. St. Albans F vj b, A Mute of houndes. 1664Spelman's Gloss., Mute, a Kenel or Crie of Hounds. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 132/1 Hounds 16 [are] a Kennell of Hounds, or a Mute.
2. The cry of hounds working.
13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1915 Hit was þe myriest mute þat euer men herde. c1350Will. Palerne 2192 Alle men þat mut herde of þe muri houndes, seweden after ful swiþe to se þat mury chace.
¶3. Misused for mew n.2 1.
The mistake seems to have arisen from confusion with the med.L. mūta mew for hawks.
1854Milman Lat. Chr. vii. i. III. 117 The cloisters became..the kennels of their hounds, the meutes of their hawks.
▪ IV. mute, n.4 dial.|mjuːt|
A kind of mule.
In some districts applied to the offspring of a mare and an ass (the ‘mule’ properly so called), and in others to that of the she-ass and stallion (the ‘hinny’).
1843Borrow Bible in Spain xxiii, Gigantic and heavily-laden mutes and mules. 1895Daily News 23 July 2/2 The most curious ‘donkey’ was a ‘mute’. Ibid., The mute was said to be nine years old.
▪ V. mute, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.|mjuːt|
Also 6, 8 mewt.
[a. OF. muetir (mutir Cotgr. 1611), aphetic form of esmeutir, earlier esmeltir.
The ulterior origin is obscure; the Teut. smelt- to melt, smelt v., would suit the form, but the affinity of sense is not very close.]
Of a bird, esp. a hawk: a. intr. To void the fæces. b. trans. To discharge as fæces.
c1450Bk. Hawking in Rel. Ant. I. 296 Ye schull say that your hawke mutith and not sclisith. 1486Bk. St. Albans C viij, She mutith when she auoydith hir order. a1529Skelton Ware the Hauke 62 The hawke..mutid there a chase Vpon my corporas face. 1575Turberv. Falconrie 61 A greene seere of hir foote,..large panell, and able to slyse farre from hir when she mewteth. 1611Bible Tobit ii. 10 Mine eyes being open, the Sparrowes muted warme doung into mine eyes. 1622tr. Luna's Pursuit Lazarillo ix. 74 Aske a Philosopher why Flyes vpon a white thing doe mute black, and contrariwise, vpon a black, white. 1679Crowne Amb. Statesm. iii. 38 Flying rumours, which like birds Soaring at random, mute on any head. 1698B. Bullivant in Phil. Trans. XX. 168 It [sc. the bird] muted the Honey pure. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Back⁓worm, Make 'em into a Pill, which give her in the Morning so soon as she has cast, and after she has mewted it clean away, then give her good hot Meat. 1774G. White Selborne 28 Sept., When they [sc. swifts] mute..they raise their wings. 1820Blackw. Mag. VII. 676 Sir Dick gave the dung that he ventures to mute on The glories of Europe, our Wellesley and Newton.
▪ VI. † mute, v.2 Obs.
[Of obscure origin: perh. a. L. mūtīre to murmur. The identity of the word in the various quots. is uncertain.]
intr. To murmur. Hence ˈmuting vbl. n., murmuring discontent.
In quot. 1542 perh. a mistake for mutining, or possibly a. MDu. muytinge insurrection.
1542Fabyan's Chron. vii. 486/2 And in this yere [1524–5]..[was] a mutyng in Norfolke & Suffolke for payment of money. 1570Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) I. 365/2 Muche lesse durst poore subiectes once mute agaynst hym. Ibid. 659/2 The kyngdome of the Pope and his members..began to be so strong, that none durst styrre or once mute agaynst them. a1639Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. (1677) iii. 124 They perceived a secret muting in their own Army. 1642D. Rogers Naaman 519 That none should be so daring or presumptuous, as once to mute or quetch, if they once proclaime their will. 1643R. Baillie Lett. (1841) II. 91 Mr. Harie Guthrie made no dinne. His letter was a wand above his head to discipline him, if he should mute. 1644Ibid. 147 This was read openlie in the face of the Assemblie, and in the eares of the Independents, who durst not mute against it. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. xi. xvii. 162 That murmuring and muting against Princes differ only in degree, not in kinde.
▪ VII. mute, v.3|mjuːt|
[f. mute a.]
†1. intr. (See quot.) Obs.—0
Perh. mute may be a mistake for run mute, which appears in later edd. of Phillips.
1678Phillips (ed. 4), Mute,..also when Hounds run long, without making any cry they are said to mute.
2. trans. To deaden or subdue the sound of: spec. in Music, to muffle the sound of (a musical instrument). Also fig.
1883F. Corder in Grove Dict. Mus. III. 637 Berlioz muted the clarinet by enveloping the bell in a bag of chamois leather. Ibid., Violins are muted either by placing a wooden or brass instrument upon the bridge. 1891G. Meredith One of our Conq. III. viii. 148 The tone of neutral colour that, as in sound, muted splendour. 1891Times 22 Oct. 14/2 The strings are muted, and, yet..the woodwind is always to be kept in subjection to them. 1906M. Pemberton Hundred Days 101 A heavy Indian carpet muted the footsteps of the Emperor as he paced it.
b. To silence.
1891G. Meredith One of our Conq. II. v. 129 They are spirited on, patted, subdued, muted, raised, rushed anew, away, held in hand.
▪ VIII. mute, v.4 Wine-making.|mjuːt|
[f. F. muter, f. L. mūtus dumb (cf. mute a.).]
trans. To check the fermentation of (must). Hence ˈmuted a.1; ˈmuting vbl. n.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 1203 If must, so muted, is boiled into a syrup within a week or ten days, it retains no sulphureous odour. A very slight muting would suffice for the most fermentable cane-juice. 1853Ibid. (ed. 4) I. 155 The muted wines.
▪ IX. mute
variant of mewt v.
a1529Skelton Sp. Parrot 26 Lyke your pus cate, Parrot can mute and cry In Lattyn, in Ebrew, Araby, and Caldey.
▪ X. mute
obs. form of moot n.1, v.1, moult v. |